Unofficial news and tips about Google

January 16, 2012

Google Account Authentication Using Your Phone

How do you login to your Google account on a computer you don't trust? When you type your username and password, a keylogger could capture them and save them. If you have a phone or a tablet with you, there's a better way:

3. Now you can click "Start with Gmail" or "Start with iGoogle" and the corresponding service will automatically load in the desktop browser. Obviously, you can use any other Google service.

Update: Apparently, it was just an experiment and it no longer works. "Thanks for your interest in our phone-based login experiment. While we have concluded this particular experiment, we constantly experiment with new and more secure authentication mechanisms. Stay tuned for something even better," says Dirk Balfanz from the Google Security Team.

Any of the following scenarios could constitute a computer you do not trust:A student using a campus computer.Using a coworker's computer.Testing a computer you wish to purchase at a store.Testing a computer at a convention.A technician, diagnosing a customer's computer in a lab.A computer in a cyber cafe or ather public access location.

Because the phone doesn't support Flash.Because the user wants to download data to the computer.Because the user wants to diagnose or test the computer in some way.Because the computer is on a network that the phone can not access which is either faster or has access to data that the user wants to use in conjunction with his/her Google account.Because the computer has software, data, peripherals, features or capabilities that the phone can not access (Keyboard, mouse, larger screen, fingerprint identification...).Because the phone's battery is near empty, or needs to be reserved.Because the user wants to use the computer and doesn't have a phone, but uses a friend's phone (which he trusts) to access a computer (which he doesn't trust).